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MINTOKEN

So, what exactly is an NFT?

NFT!!! NFT!!! NFT!!! I’m sure you’ve heard these words popping up a lot in the last year, and the buzz has been at an all-time high. Did you know ‘NFT’ was one of the most searched words on Google and even surpassed Crypto.
People are making millions of dollars by trading NFTs.

The acronym NFT stands for non-fungible token. Every token is unique and cannot be swapped for another token, such as 100USD for yours or 1BTC for yours.
Because they are not interchangeable, they are referred to as non-fungible tokens, which are built on top of the blockchain, which verifies each one’s authenticity.

NFTs can be made on various blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Polygon, and others.

In this blog, I will be discussing only Cardano-NFTs.

A simple guide to minting NFTs on the Cardano Blockchain.

You will need the following:

• Time
• Internet
• P.C (Minting via app after installation, possible)
• (Shelly) Wallet
• Exchange
• Fiat Money (i.e., credit card)
• Pool.pm (To view)

Cardano NFT projects will start to boom and there will be some significant developments this year that will help Cardano holders and the projects that are being developed around it.
It will also not eat up a chunk of your budget in the form of gas fees.
So this is one of the best times to be invested in C-NFT projects.

The only problem is, you have no idea how to get yourself started, and you want your image of a baby alien now! 

So, the first thing you will need to do before buying any NFT is to have one of the wallets below

1. Daedalus
2. Yoroi
3. Nami
4. CC Wallet 5. Adalite

These wallets differ from exchanges (Hot Wallet) in that they can store NFTs, but exchanges cannot.
These are called Shelly era wallets.
You will need a ‘Shelly’ wallet compatible with the Blockchains native cryptocurrency Ada. This is the currency ‘money’ used to pay for fees and transactions within the Cardano ecosystem, and what you will use to mint your tokens.

(You can NOT mint or buy tokens with an exchange wallet)

The most popular wallets are Yoroi or Nami (others are available) both are quick to install and very user-friendly.

Once you have a wallet installed (ensuring to follow all instructions and secure your seed phrases) and you get to grips with the layout, you are going to need to buy some Ada currency. The easiest way to purchase Ada is via a Currency exchange site such as www.binance.com or www.Coinbase.com (this can take a bit of time to set up and navigate, but it is worth the effort). Once you have got yourself set up, and you have brought your first ever cryptocurrency, you are now going to want to transfer your Ada to your (Shelly) wallet. You simply cut and paste your wallet address into the correct field on the exchange, confirm the transaction, and wait for your Ada to appear in your wallet. 

You are now ready to face the Metaverse!!!

Now let’s get to the minting part!

Pop yourself along to cnft.io (a secondary market), create yourself an account, and shop away!

How to mint an NFT from a website?

1. Open the website and, at the moment of minting, select the mint option.
2. Choose how many NFTs you wish to buy and then click Buy.
3. The address and cost will be displayed in the form of Adas.
4. Then, on the wallet you use, copy the address and exact Ada.
5. In the wallet, click on send.
6. You will receive your NFT once the transaction has been validated.

What if you have missed the mint or came to know about the project only recently and wanted to buy that NFT? Don’t worry, you will have another chance to buy the NFT on the Secondary Market Place.

Famous Secondary marketplaces for C-NFTs:

1. cnft.io
2. jpg.store
3. Galaxy of art
cnft.io is the leading marketplace for Cardano NFTs

How to buy on the secondary marketplace?
I will be referring to cnft.io for easy purposes.

• First register and login on to the site
• You need to connect the wallet with the site.
• For cnft.io click on the profile picture, go to the dashboard.
• In dashboard go-to wallets,
• Then connect with the one you use.
• You will be asked to send some Ada to an address.
• This is just to confirm the account. Ada will be sent back again. • From wallets, send to the address.
• If you don’t have Ada in your wallets, add funds from Coinbase or BInance to the wallets

Congrats, half of the job is done. You have connected the wallet.

Now let’s see how to buy an NFT on cnft.io

1. Select the NFT you want to buy and click on BUY
2. Copy the address and paste it in the wallet and fix the Ada on the wallet.
3. Click on Send in the wallet
4. You will then receive your NFT within 24hrs once the sender sends your NFT. Don’t worry, your money will only be deducted once you receive your NFT

(Always check out the policy verification to make sure it is legitimate, especially for large collections).

What if you want to mint your own NFT?
You can do that by following the process below

• Open nft-maker.io
• Click on Mint NFT
• Upload images ( PNG or JPEG or GIF)
• Then Add metadata
• Click on NSFW if it’s not for all audiences. NSFW- Not Safe for Work
• After that, click on Next.
• Then it asks to send some Ada to the given address…
• Copy-Paste the address and Ada in the wallet and then send.

The transaction fee is very low and once the transaction is complete your NFT is minted

Congrats now you have learned how to mint!

Now how to check the NFTs you own?

Copy the address in your wallet in the search of Pool.pm site.
You will be able to check the NFTs.

Great!!!!!

Now I will tell you a few important things.
To check the rarity of C-NFTs, go to tokenref.com
To check new C-NFT projects, go to wencnft.com
To check the analytics of the project, go to cnftanalytics.io

Or…

The most up-and-coming NFT Projects can be found by simply typing ‘Top CNFT Projects’ in the search bar of Google.

You will soon find yourself following cool projects on Twitter or asked to sign up to a Discord server.

Welcome to the world of CNFTS

Discord is a platform that creators of projects use as a tool, to build and interact with their communities. Also, this is where you are going to find the wallet address you need to send your Ada to, so you can mint your tokens.

Most projects will have a specific mint date and time (and often a pre-sale drop). This will be issued directly by the project’s management to their Announcements channel in their Discord server or, will be shared by an official Twitter account (always, be on the look-out for scammers) on the day of mint.

You might find the project has sold out already, and you are now waiting for the next season to drop, or you are early to a project and find yourself an OG entering a community competition! There will always be engagement and incentives on offer, so always check the project’s roadmap and other links to do your own research.

Once you have found the NFT of your dreams, and you are all set on mint day. Copy the address posted in the Discords’ announcement channel (they will never DM you the address) and paste it into the send field of their wallet. Paste the exact amount of Ada posted by the project and confirm the transaction and your Token will be sent directly to your wallet. A lot of wallets will only list your NFTs and not let you view them but do not panic!!

Copy and paste your wallet’s received address into the search bar of pool.pm (The Blockchain site you can view your tokens on), and you will see your tokens in all their glory.